High and Dry

I read a news article about UK weather, thousands of fish killed after water receded from River Thames flooding. As the river flooded, fresh water fish had moved into fields, a new fresh environment for them. But the happiness short-lived as water receded and those poor creatures were left high and dry. They died of suffocation.

Weren’t we left high and dry in many a situation? Haven’t we done this to others too!

(I am sure all would know the phrase “leave someone high and dry” means, in case somebody does not know, I do not want to leave that person high and dry !

Leave someone high and dry means :

-       You are left helpless in a situation because you aren't given something you need or were promised

-       to leave someone unsupported and unable to maneuver; to leave someone helpless 

-       to put someone in a very difficult situation which they have no way of making better)

I had joined new team in my organization in business development support role. My first opportunity to prove my mettle, a multimillion prospect team from US was visiting us and we had to present our capabilities to them to grab the order. My boss created enough hype, told this was a huge opportunity for me to get a good first impression. Towards a fast career path, salary hikes what not.   He left it to myself to handle. I spent lots of time understanding the customer profile, their technology base, business areas, their customers, their competitors etc etc. I also spent more time in gathering all the relevant past experience of our organization, capabilities to show case to the customer to convey him that, yes we can do this. Previous day of the customer visit, boss called me, made me present in front of him, and said good show. I rehearsed the presentation in front of the mirror 5 times, once while taking bath of course with no mirror, once while having breakfast for a final time. Yes, customer team entered, boss entered, boss’s boss entered the room. I am standing, ready to go for the kill. My boss whispered in my ears “I will present this, if needed I will ask you to pitch in”. No pitching in, not a word of gratitude in public or private from him.

One month down the line, similar customer, this time from UK, similar order, same hype from my boss. But not the same effort from me. He is going to steal it from me anyways with no reward for me, so why should I. I did a shabby job of preparation and presented to him the previous day. Again he said, good show !. Customer walked in, my boss walked in and I was waiting for my boss to whisper in my ears this time also. He just took his seat and said, “yes you can start now”! My BP was “high” and my throat was “dry” throughout the presentation. Later I realized from my peers that my boss was not at all interested in winning projects, he just wanted to impress his boss with his presentation skills. (His boss was missing during UK customer visit!)

My last trip to Tirupati, I cannot forget it. Usually we used to drive down from Bangalore, this time we thought we will go by one of those “conducted trips” by travel agencies. I approached one of them. A/C office, fully carpeted, nice fragrance, a cup of tea, only 10% down payment rest can be paid after a week, photographs and credentials by people who had already availed their services, I was impressed. I cursed myself for not approaching this guy earlier.

The evening arrived. We packed up our stuff, waiting for the bus to arrive. Bus came 2 hours late. 3 AM we were asked to get down in front of a hotel which was half constructed. I tried to open the room given to us. The room was already open, two people jumped out of the bed and vanished in front of us. I entered the bath room, Indian style commode, no issues for me. But only half of the commode was there. The other half they might have used for the next room. Managed to get out of the room somehow after freshening up. They took us to some other place 10 KMs away and made us stand in the queue from 5 AM for 2 hours to get the magic band tied on to our hands. We were fed rock like idlis and chutney with traces of coconut in it. Stood in the Darshan queue as usual and completed it in 3 hours. The torture to me did continue during return trip in the bus. They had screened a Telugu movie with a villain like unknown hero doing some hysterics. Volume was so high I could not sleep either. Only good time I had was those 3 hours in the darshan queue and especially those 30 seconds I was allowed to have darshan in front of god. Probably that’s what the travel agent meant by “Happy Darshan” ensured!

Sometimes people may put you into high and dry situation, unintentionally. One Sunday we all started to Nandi Hills. All of us were visiting that place first time but for my cousin, Thambi. He was on the lead. On the way, apart from many good things about that place, he mentioned about abundance of monkeys there. We were all excited. We hadn’t seen those many monkeys at one place. As we reached Nandi Hills and started walking, my father told “We should have come on a working day”. We looked at him surprisingly –doesn’t he know that we can’t get leave that easily, after all, places like Nandi Hills are meant for a holiday only. He just added “looks like it’s a holiday for monkeys too!”. To our disappointment, more so for Thambi, we could not spot a single monkey on that day. (I had visited Nandi Hills many times after that and had witnessed huge groups of monkeys! )

There are some smart guys who can put the other person in high and dry situation when attempted on them. Suri, my uncle is one of them. He was just out of college and he got a job. Sharmaji, Suri’s uncle was trying to venture into a LIC agent’s role, new one for him. He met Suri one day and explained to him the benefits of taking a policy, how it can meet long term financial goals while insuring one’s life etc. Suri remarked “ wonderful, I am not sure why I didn’t think of this earlier”. Sharmaji was over excited, another step towards meeting his target.

One week passed. No attempt from Suri to initiate the process. Sharmaji approached him with the form and told him he would pay the first premium for Suri. Policy opened. Next month, installment was due, in fact over-due by a week. Suri had not paid the installment. Sharmaji came to Suri said “I paid for this month also, next month onward you can start paying”. Suri again said “ wonderful”. Third installment was over-due by 2 weeks. No action from Suri. This time no action from Sharmaji either. Policy discontinued for ever.

What’s the fun if we do not get into high and dry situations once in a while, if they are not too taxing? That will make us learn things our own and make us well prepared for the next one!